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Smerconish: ‘Am I Complicit’ If I Watch Movies or Shows Featuring Men Accused of Sexual Misconduct?

'In a monologue at the end of this morning’s broadcast of Smerconish, CNN’s Michael Smerconish wondered aloud what the responsibility of consumers is now in the wake of the #MeToo movement that has led to a multitude of men in entertainment being accused of sexual misconduct and harassment.

“Every day the arts sections are filled with new allegations of bad behavior, of cultural icons from actor Dustin Hoffman allegedly groping a Broadway co-star to the Metropolitan Opera conductor James Levine’s alleged relationship with an underaged boy,” the CNN host noted. “If I listen to an old recording of the Met or I rewatch Tootsie, am I complicit?”

He added, “In other words can we as consumers continue to enjoy the fruits of the labor of those who are now under a cloud of suspicion?”

Smerconish went on to state that these questions aren’t new as we’ve dealt with troubling behavior from artistic icons in the past, naming Michael Jackson, Woody Allenand Pablo Picasso. This led to him pointing out that he finds himself “wrestling with so many questions” before naming a list of shows, movies, radio programs and podcasts that featured recently accused men, asking if he could still enjoy them.'

Comments

Things like this were suggested during the Red Scare of the 1950s. The work of anyone even suspected of being a communist/sympathizer was subjected to extra scrutiny, sometimes rejected out of hand.

Ironically, German nuclear and rocket scientists during WWII were not allowed to use any research findings reported by Jewish colleagues generated years back while working on the atomic bomb. This set them back in the race to build the first nuclear bomb. Had they focused on the work itself vs. who did it, history may well have looked more like "The Man In The High Castle" than what it actually was.

One time we can be thankful that bigotry so blinded someone/some entity that the result of it ultimately led to its own well-deserved demise.

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